


the Doomstones

by Doc_Ginger



Series: The Scion's Warhammerverse [1]
Category: Warhammer - All Media Types, Warhammer Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-18 08:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9377489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doc_Ginger/pseuds/Doc_Ginger
Summary: In the world of Warhammer there is only war. A couple decades before the End Times there is a world that is ramping itself up to disaster, with death and misery being the only constants in life. However, this era is also one of heroes, whose tales of valor and heroism spread hope, a hope that death will be staved off for another year, that there may yet be some life yet living.This is not a story of that heroism, this is the tale of Tess Moriarti, Tilian by birth, Imperial Wizard by trade. A young woman whose quest for personal power may or may not have set up a chain of events that brought on the beginning of the End Times.





	1. Auspicious Beginings

**Author's Note:**

> I have been Game Mastering WFRP v2 for 15 or so years now, with my first and still main group having a single campaign that lasted 6 years of playing almost every weekend for 10 hours a game day. We created epic stories and characters that we grew more attached to than most literary characters we loved. After so many hours and adventures together what turned into a fun way to waste some time while waiting for a new DnD DM to step up we ended up creating a story that became part of our lives, and even a decade and a half later we will reminisce and talk about our characters, known as the Scion's throughout the Old World for their mythical tales. 
> 
> This is the origin if not the original. This story is set the furthest back in our tales timeline and deals with the events that allowed our first campaign to take place. That being said, this is a novelized version of our campaign, each event that happens in this story happened in our game, with changes to conversation where the player notes couldn't decipher exactly what happened. Please enjoy my work and leave some feedback or criticism :)

               A thick fog hung lazily over the Imperial city of Nuln, its high walls holding the pollution-tinted clouds in the city like a quiet valley and its tall buildings hulking like islands in the grey sea. The foundries puffed black smoke into the sky and the furnaces were cleaned in preparation for the day’s forging. The last dark clouds of winter lay over the city like wet cotton, blocking out the springtime sun which was lighting up the distant mountains in a golden hue, contrasting the still dark city.

                Near the southern gate of the city there was already bustling activity. Oxen were being tethered to a wagon train that wound up through the street, stretching several city blocks in length. The street was hectic, with several dozen people coming and going from inns and warehouses that lined the street. They loaded bundles of various goods on the back of the carts and lashed their own packs and belongings where they could find room.

                Watching all of this from the back of her dappled pony was Tess Moriarti. She drew the hood of her riding cloak up higher in vain as she tried to fight her chills, the thick wool heavy with damp. She caught herself staring at two other figures on the far side of the street, her employer and the owner of the entire caravan, Friedrich Ulhan and his son. Ulhan was a now wealthy and rather renowned Merchant originally from Talabheim of all places, Tess had learned, but now had Caravans and warehouses in most Imperial cities. This year was looking to expand his business to the merchant city of Miragliano in Tilia, which she guessed was why this was such a hugely expensive undertaking befitting of the man’s personal oversight.

                Tess Moriarty was a small woman, easily small and petite enough to be confused for a lass barely coming of age. Her skin, originally a light olive, had begun to pale in the harsh climes of the Empire, and her hair a dark grey, eyes brown enough to be black on first glance. Little of that was visible currently as Tess was bound in her traveling clothes to ward off the morning frosts of early spring. Tess absently rubbed her legs through her trousers willing them to avoid the cold, knowing that she would have a long day of riding ahead of her. She was distracted enough that she didn’t notice one of her new traveling companions sidling up to her until he spoke.

                “Is int’resting how diff’rent the two of them is no?” The Kislevite spoke, his mustache shaking slightly as he chewed on his lip. The man was tall, his head level with Tess’ waist even with her on horseback, his hair a deep brown and as undoubtedly large a man as he was he had bear furs of the same color as his hair piled around his chest and shoulders, giving him all the appearance of a bear himself.

                “Not nearly as interesting as the company we will have with us on this journey Vladimir.” Tess responded rolling her eyes, knowing that the man would fail to catch the jibe in her words.

                “Ach,” The Kislevite grunted in agreement, “A hanfull of Dwarf folk and da’ elfy woman. Ah never understand how you Imperials let so many non-humans run ‘round.”

                Tess sighed inwardly at this gross insult to her own Tilian ancestry and thought to herself, _That’s not to mention the Estalian, or the wild mage or even herself._ Tess knew she stuck out just as much as the rest of them, her size even at 23 summers she was barely taller than the dwarves, she mused, and yet all the Kislevite could see human versus non humans.

                Tess noticed Freidrich and his son turn their mounts to the city gate and begin riding towards the front of the caravan, halting occasionally to make sure their goods would be secure for the journey south. She slipped on her riding gloves and prodded her mount forwards as she thought back on the evening before, when she met the two Ulhans.  

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

                Tess paused for a moment before the door of the ‘Heavy Purse’, a tavern which enjoyed popularity with both traders and those wishing to work for them.  It was a large establishment, playing host this evening to one of the largest caravans in recent memory, not only was it a brand new endeavor for a well-known and respected merchant, but it was also the first caravan to plan a journey southwards across the mountains since the new year. Most others wouldn’t be ready to head off for several weeks.

                Tess took a deep breath and pushed the door to the establishment open, going over her plan in her head.  This caravan was what she came looking for after all, hailing from Tilia originally she needed a  way to find her way back home from her studies in Altdorf, and her profession all but required her to find something a bit more adventurous than a ship. Not to mention her propensity for sea sickness.

_Besides,_ Tess considered, _If there was a way she could get paid for going home, it was worth the effort._  

                Tess strode purposefully into the tavern. She acted as though she belonged, pushing between people as though it were a minor inconvenience, and they treated her in kind. Just a short shadow that was in their way for a moment. The wide and long common room was bursting with people fighting, gambling, and drinking with comrades. Tess was well prepared though, having spent the last several years receiving training in remaining unnoticed. She stuck to the wall, and began walking down it, her hood still up.

                Tess surveyed the room, taking note of the occupants and activities, her drab cloak and diminutive stature keeping her from attracting second looks from the few that she passed closely on her patrol. Near the hearth Tess spotted the merchant that she had come to see, he was an old man now, his face pitted and scarred, though she could still see the handsome man that lay in his past. She was too far away to see details, but he appeared to be still hiring for his caravan.

The merchant was seated on the long edge of a table, ledgers and papers stacked in front of him, and seated opposite were two dwarves speaking animatedly and drinking long from well-worn wooden flagons. Both of the dwarves looked to be warriors, both carried crossbows slung over their backs along with circular shields and swords on their hips. Packs lay at their feet, overstuffed and lumpy with traveling supplies. Their shields were decorated with Khazalid runes, of which Tess could only identify the mark of Karak Norn, recognizing it from her studies as a hold in the Grey Mountains west of the Empire.

As the dwarves stood and began to shake hands with the merchant Tess readied herself to approach the merchant. She took a deep breath and lowered her hood, shaking her hair out to give life back to her massive curls.

She felt the suspicion of the men immediately around her as she revealed herself and they actually saw her for the first time. Deeming them insignificant she smoothed her skirt with her hands. It was short, only a few inches below her knees, and gathered to keep from restricting her movement.

As she passed the leaving dwarves she was momentarily surprised, they appeared to be twins, both almost identical looking, with braided mustaches and burly beards. As she got closer she began to notice slight differences however. One had a thin scar on his upper lip where hair did not grow and small charms braided into his beard and mustache, his eyes were sharp and quick. The other seemed almost opposite, his cheeks reddened in the warm glow of merriment, with glass beads in his beard, his eyes were much more cheery, staring at various places around the room in excitement rather than paranoia.

                Tess pushed forward quickly, the slight heel on her riding boots clicking faintly on the wooden floor. It was not loud enough to be heard from more than a few feet away in the din of the building but the sound reminded Tess of her purpose and the power she held. She raised her head high, letting those she passed see her confidence as well. When she was only a few paces away she saw the merchant look up at her and his eyebrows furrowed quizzically. Before he could say anything she stopped, standing before him and stuck her hand out.

                “Tess Moriarti.” She offered. The merchant quickly stood and took her hand, shaking it lightly as was polite. Tess took his hand with both of hers, firm gripped. _Good_ , Tess thought to herself, already achieved a position of advantage for negotiations.

                “Freidrich Ulhan.” He recovered quickly, “Good evening Miss Moriarti.” Freidrich gestured at the chair before him, “How may I assist you today miss?”

                Tess pulled her skirt against her legs and sat politely, as a lady would, knowing that the odds of her manners against her appearance would keep the merchant at a disadvantage. “I’m here in inquire, sir, if you are still hiring escorts for your caravan south tomorrow morning?”

                Freidrich coughed uncomfortably, “Well most of the men I have in here tonight,” he broadly swept his arms across the entirety of the common area as he continued, “are contracted through a company. I can’t risk everything on someone I can’t trust, you understand.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “However, I still am hiring specialists, since we will be traveling so far through the mountains, and passes not used since before winter at that.” He boasted the last part.  

“I see,” Tess began, chewing her lower lip, as though lost in thought. “And you will be using the Brenheim pass out of Kreutzhofen then?”

Freidrich eyed Tess warily, “You seem rather well versed on lesser known mountain trails miss.” He left the accusation hanging, clearly hoping to draw a response, which Tess was happy to provide.

“Herr Ulhan, it is no secret that you make for Miragliano, and the Brenheim pass is the only way straight to Tilia. Why unless you plan on marching through the Border princes on your way which would be foolish for a caravan this high profile! My father, a Miragliano merchant himself, would simply never allow any of his land based shipments to go through that place!” Tess spoke carefully, tilting her head and making the socially correct inflections in her voice at the right time to lure Freidrich into hiring her.

His eyes widened with implication as she drew to a close, “Ah you’re a daughter of a Tilian merchant family then! Trying to get home are we? And you were hoping you could join me as my guest on the way?” Freidrich’s tone became more pointed as he believed to be drawing a bead on Tess, but she decided to deflate him before he withdrew too far from the warm atmosphere she had been building.

“Not at all. I’m here to be hired as one of your specialists.” She stated flatly and suppressed a smirk as the merchant’s eyes narrowed; unsure of which direction she had just turned the conversation.

“Surely a lovely ahh… Woman such as yourself would rather ride in comfort rather than with the outriders, no?” Friedrich asked, trying to regain control of the conversation.

                Tess allowed herself a small smile as she closed the trap, “You overestimate my position, sir, I am no heiress to a fortune. As the seventh daughter, I in fact had to find my own way to a fortune, and am on my way home from the Imperial Colleges of Altdorf,”

                Tess drew herself as tall as she could manage as she continued, trying to swing the hammer of her reveal hard enough to shatter the merchants preconceived notions of her and leave her entirely in control of a contract for her position as one of his specialists. “You see I have just completed my education as a Magister of the Grey Order, and need to seek work, as such, on my way home.”

                Freidrich’s eyes buldged with comprehension for but a moment before he recovered, “Ah, I see.” He said flatly. “Unfortunately I do not know if we have room for a wizard of your order on this journey, you see-“

                “I do believe YOU should see. As I am sure you know an Imperial Wizard like myself brings not only safety to your caravan but prestige and power to yourself.” Tess countered.

                Freidrich interrupted her with a raised hand. “You make a good point for yourself miss. A Shadow Wizard may indeed prove useful to our outriders. I can offer you one silver a day plus expenses until our arrival at Miragliano.

                “Don’t entertain her father.” A new voice interrupted and Tess saw Freidrich’s son separate from the crowd behind the merchant. He had a mop of pale hair tucked behind his ears, his bangs hanging loose to frame a gaunt, unsettling face. Tess observed him silently; individually each of the features on his face appeared well cut and defined, but appeared almost lifeless. Tess was immediately unsure of the man, and could not bring herself to trust a man whose face was so difficult to read.  His dress was designed to do anything but deflect attention away from him, well cut riding trousers and tall boots just worn enough to give the impression of use. Tess noted that his black long coat at least appeared functional for a traveler, having a split for riding and a collar tall enough to block wind and rain.

                Tess’s eyes locked with the son’s lavender ones and she could see the ego of a man who would not stop until he had what he wanted, and the surety of one who was rather used to doing the manipulating rather than receiving it. “You plan on leaving this branch of our office to me next year anyways right father?”

                Freidrich raised his head slightly, looking down his nose at his son, knowing where the conversation was going. Tess was sure he was about to fold but he spoke, fire being stoked by his son’s arrogance. “That’s next year. For now you would do well to remember your hubris Nik.”

                “Father I simply do not want to have to trust yet another wizard standing behind me in the outriders” The young man continued. His voice and eyes both burned with anger but Tess found his face unsettling, an impassive mask.

                “This is my final word. You know full well how much power and prestige we will wield having two more Wizards in our ranks.” Freidrich turned back to Tess again, cutting off any of his son’s further replies. “Do we have an arrangement miss Moriarti?”

                Tess had planned on negotiating for a higher price, but due to the son’s interruption she felt that Freidrich had more leverage than she felt comfortable fighting against. “We do.” She shook Freidrich’s hand once more as he made an annotation in his ledger.

                He stood and offered his seat to his son, speaking still to Tess, “My son here will be in charge of the outriders. He will be in charge of the day to day activities for the rest of the specialists and yourself.”

                Friedrich walked away as his son sat before Tess and pulled out his own notebook, much smaller than his father’s great ledgers. Tess decided to antagonize the man once again, “So what’s Nik short for?” She said, sweetly enough to let him know that his objection to her was mutual.

                He did not look up as he scribbled down one final note in his notebook, rudely ignoring her for a few seconds more as he finished. As Tess began to think that he would require a subtler approach he closed his ledger with a small snap and stood himself quickly, leaving Tess to catch up.

                “Please miss Moriarty, for the sake of our business relationship, let us leave it at Master Ulhan for now. Or simply Ulhan, if formality is not needed.” He locked eyes with Tess again, and still with an impassive face bowed as deeply as he could while still keeping eye contact.

                Tess curtsied in turn, “Very well… Master Ulhan. I bid you a goodnight.” She spun on her heel, annoyed at this ‘Master Ulhan’ for his rudeness (never mind her own previously). She decided immediately that she did not like the man, but seeking to salvage the situation she strode to the table where the two dwarves from earlier had moved to.

                It appeared to actually be a few larger tables, pushed together in a horseshoe to allow for more seating for those grouped at it. Tess guessed that this table must have belonged to the ‘specialists’ hired for the caravan, as compared to the uniforms and standardized equipment of the rest of the tavern. Every man and even another woman at this table looked unique and rather self-supplied in their equipment.

                Tess sat down at the empty chair next two the two brother dwarves and made her introductions, giving a curt nod or handshake to each of the dozen other people at the table.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

                Tess was dragged from her reverie as Ulhan the younger stood in his stirrups, calling out, “Vanguard and all you specialists! To the front of the caravan!” Tess noted that his voice didn’t waver, staying at the same impassive tone as last night, only increasing it’s volume.

                She prodded her pony to the front of the convoy, where one open wagon lay half filled with foodstuffs and other supplies. Ulhan had stepped from his horse onto the back of it to clearly see as the rest gathered around. While she waited she noticed that he had not changed from last night at all save a wool cap over his ears, with leather gloves the same shade as his boots.

_Arrogant bastard_ , Tess thought to herself as the Kislevite walked up, leading his pony by the reins. He had a small recurve bow in a leather case on his hip and a large curved blade under the furs across his shoulders. Otherwise he looked the same as before, and Tess nodded at him as he approached. He was trustworthy, his people being too direct to worry about betrayal or deciept.

                Tess was less sure of the two dwarves ambling up, still drunk from the night before. They were the brothers Janik and Jalik, of Karak Norn. Rangers by trade both had a mission to scout the entire length of Brenheim pass for their Karak, and had decided to join with this caravan both to make the mission easier, and earn them extra coin while at it. They were both young and loud, a total contrast to the party’s third dwarf, Tybalt.

                Tybalt was an Imperial dwarf, raised in the Empire rather than the traditional mountain home. He was a bodyguard by hire who had been traveling with the Ulhan trade company for some time, having been brought for this mission due to his reliability and expertise. Contrary to the lighter armor and ranger cloaks of the brother dwarves, Tybalt wore scale armor, with a heavy helm and shield. He carried an enormous axe and crossbow much more suited for sitting atop a rampart than light skirmishing.

                Tess looked back to the young Ulhan as he began to speak now that the rest of the specialists were almost to the cart, “Good morning everyone. I hope you’re all ready to earn your pay. As you’ve all had the chance to introduce yourselves last night we won’t be dallying. You all are this caravan’s vanguard. A caravan as large as this _will_ attract some attention going through the pass, and simply huddling around it like a bunch of guards will get us all ambushed and killed.”

                Ulhan began to pace on the cart, becoming more animated as his words carried across the group surrounding him. Tess noticed that his eyes had not changed at all, and realized that this was all an act to give his merry band of idiots something to be loyal too. Tess rolled her eyes and her attention drifted.

                “We have our own mission and will be moving far and fast to achieve it. In that vein, if you do not possess your own mount you will ride in the cart with our extra supplies. No one will be on foot.” Ulhan stepped off the cart and back onto his own horse, “We leave in ten minutes, we have a slight detour. But will meet back up with the caravan before we hit the pass.”

                With that, Tess saw a silent Tybalt ushering the rest of the parties dwarves onto the back of the cart while he adjusted the reins for his size. Everyone else began mounting up and Tess turned her horse to the gate, ready to breathe fresh air again. _What a disgusting city_ , she thought to herself. Unsure of how the Imperials could live in such dirty conditions.

                As she approached the gate, Tess felt the winds of magic surrounding her stir. The winds of magic were ever-shifting and changing, ebbing and flowing in tune to the two moons and the happenings of magic elsewhere in the world, but there were always consistencies within it. Whenever you were near a large gathering of people the winds would stagnante. Tess’s professors at the Grey University in Altdorf explained that this was due to magics innate, almost sentient need to be utilized. It would latch onto places or people of great power, and failing that, where enough people of middling power gathered. The result of this was that while in a city you were never lucky enough to feel winds strong enough to invigorate and empower youl; but you never found yourself without magic as the winds outside the city shifted pulling the magic along with it.

                A byproduct of this stillness was that magic users would feel the stagnant air react to any magic being utilized nearby.  Tess’s own order of Shadow mages exclusively trained in the use of _Ulgu: the Grey wind_ , as opposed to any of the other seven winds. Tess did not feel Ulgu being drawn anywhere, instead she felt if shift slightly, as if to fill a vacuum left somewhere else. This Tess recognized as the sign that magic of a different color from her own was being used, and she wanted to know who this other magic user was.

                A scant hundred paces from the gate Tess found her answer. Standing along the road between two rickety houses stood an ancient looking man, his feet were bare and looked tough and calloused, a fraying wool robe of brown hung loosely on his frame, and he had a large beard of salt and pepper hanging halfway down his chest. He had a crown woven from thin branches with a few flowers growing from it. It also had dead grass falling from it as though it was a bird’s nest before the snows came. The man stood with an arm outstretched, the tips of his fingers resting on the nose of a large buck that was sniffing at the man intently.

                Tess watched silently as the man slowly stepped forward, his hand brushing up the deer’s cheek and down its neck until his chest was brushing up against its own. He spoke softly, his voice melodious like a birdsong, “You are the shadow mage correct? What is your name young one?”

                Tess snorted, knowing full well that the druid would have heard of her after her entrance into the inn last night. “Tess. Yes, a magister of the shadow college. That makes you a druid of the Amber lore.” She stated simply.

                “Ghur yes,” He nodded slowly before looking at her from the corner of his eye. “But I have been around a long time and know not many mages as young as you. Why you have yet to adopt the physical manifestations of your order even.”

                The druid turned to face her, leaving one hand on the deer’s shoulder as she responded, “And what do you know of our order birdbrain?”

                The druids laugh was heartfelt, as soft as the rest of him, “I know little of your secrets, your kind as rarely as open or honest as the forest. But I suspect that your kind sends apprentices off on their own to further their training, which would make you not quite a magister yet.”

                Tess’s eyes narrowed as she retorted, “Listen here, I have no doubt that you’ve many more years talking with animals than I, but if you believe that a shadow mage lacks tricks that you’ve not yet seen…” Tess let the threat hang as the druid raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.

                “Please, I believe we started wrong here.” He sung, “We are both mages of the Empire, and though our orders often are at odds, I see no reason why we cannot at least get along on this trip.”

                He smiled meekly, “I am Kragun, and I feel your companion sizing my new friend up from somewhere behind me. So if you could be so kind as to invite him out so I may introduce us?”

               Tess smirked, knowing that the Amber mage would have detected her familiar. She whistled and a small brown and golden wolf slipped out from the forests edge and trotted up to Kragun, sniffing him intently. The druid for his part used both of his hands to calm and control the deer, allowing the wolf to acclimate himself to his scent. After he had assuaged the deer he allowed himself to fall into a cross legged seat on the ground, holding a palm out for the wolf, who began licking it lightly.

               Tess bristled at how quickly he had won over the beasts trust but understood that it was simply a result of his many years of becoming one with the creatures of the world. She spoke, “His name is Belgair, he was originally from Araby. A pet of mine from when I was sent to Altdorf, and I took him with me.”

               Kragun nodded and spoke, his voice raising in pitch in a cute way as he began playing with Belgair, with his hand. “I thought he was rather small for a wolf of our forests. I have never had the pleasure of meeting with a beast from another world entirely.”

               Kragun smiled as Belgair rolled onto his back, and used his paws to pull Kragun’s hand to him while he chewed on it playfully. “He is beautiful, and I can feel the love and connection he has to you easily enough. You have made him your familiar?”

               Tess nodded, embarrassed and not willing to admit she poured a piece of her soul into the wolf knowing that in giving him a piece of her soul and sharing her magic with him would elongate his natural life, and allow him to stay with her in this world for longer. “Of course, he was always incredibly receiving to training and his loyalty made the bonding easy.”

               Kragun nodded as he stood, “Just like you Gray types. Always pragmatic. Out of respect for your status and the good treatment you provide your familiar with, you can count on me in the coming weeks.”

               Tess hummed, signaling Belgair to heel to her as she turned her horse back to the gate, seeing the rest of the Caravan’s vanguard coming out of the gate. She patiently waited for the group to catch up to her on the road and pass her as Kragun mounted the deer behind her and goaded it foreword softly, allowing it to accustom itself to his weight.

               Ulhan, leading the vanguard frowned and turned up an eyebrow at Tess as he saw the wolf resting on its haunches at her horses side, but did not say anything as he led the group past. Tess allowed herself a smirk as she fell into the group. Now that their entire group had seen Belgair and knew he was with her she trusted in his intelligence, enhanced from residual magic exposure, to work in conjunction with his beastly wit, and told him to run off, trusting that he would not stray too far from the group as he entertained himself hunting small game alongside the road.

               Tess didn’t look back at Nuln as the party rode into the forests heading south. There was little for her in the past, and it all lay ahead of her back in Miragliano, she no longer thought of it as home, as a Grey wizard it was her fate now to wander, plying her trade and improving herself wherever she could. Home was wherever Belgair and her lay down to rest, her fate to to improve her skills and knowledge within her order.

               This journey would be unlike anything she had ever experienced before, when she was sent from her families mansion in Miragliano to study in Altdorf as a small girl she didn’t have strength. She had a caustic wit and sharp intelligence, bred from her upbringing as one of the bottom rungs in her family’s social ladder, but she had strength now. Born of her comfort and knowledge with magic, she had the strength to see her ambitions through, and this journey would be the first step towards giving her the strength to forge her own fate.

               Tess smiled as she looked up, the sun finally breaking through the cloud cover overhead and its rays warming her face. She would chase her ambition back to Miragliano and then beyond, there was nothing that would stop her now, and the experience she would gain from this adventure would only strengthen her on her inexorable march into her future.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The not really awaited ch 2 is finally here! With the lack of critical reception of the first chapter this took way longer than it should have. After two weeks of staring at the finished product I decided that weather or not any of you actually read this I want to get the idea out of my head so here goes. As is the standard, please rate n' review!

   Tess sat on the low remains of a thick stone wall, her legs, crossed at the knee, swinging idly. The heel of her boot clicked every time it came in contact with the smooth dwarven stone beneath her. She let out a heavy breath with boredom, the escaping air lifting her loose bangs from her eyes temporarily. Belgaer made a groaning sound near her feet where he was digging through cracked stones, rotted wood and ashy mud in the ruins of the old building they were in. 

   “I’m alright buddy.” She cooed softly, then watched him go back to digging. “Just bored.” She finished, uncrossing her legs and laying back across the wall, enjoying the warmth the sun infused within the dark rock. She listened to the sounds of labor around her. The rest of her party was digging through the ruins in other nearby buildings, and she occasionally heard cracking as rotted wood gave way and debris or stone shifted. Cursing usually followed as well.

   Work smarter not harder, Tess smirked to herself. Everyone else would be dirty and miserable, not her fault that she had Belgaer, who enjoyed digging holes looking for prizes. Granted, he was not digging for food this time, but to find any dwarven artifacts left in the ruins. Still, it exercised him and gave him something to do besides plod along with the slow and boring caravan like the last few days. 

   Tess felt Belgaer’s excitement build as he found something hard within the grey mud. She pushed herself off the wall, her boots squelching as she landed, and reached for her staff still leaning against the wall beside where she sat. Belgaer had switched to digging around the perimeter of the hard object and as Tess approached she saw that he had found an old stone chest. She knelt down beside him and petted him affectionately as she examined the find. 

   It was built into two pieces, presumably a hollow box, covered in intricate carvings now obscured by mud and a solid lid that would slip down into the hollow of the box, making a decent seal. Being stone rather than a cheaper wood Tess hazarded that it would have been the personal storage chest for whomever the chest belonged to. Luckily when this building came down, the ashes and burnt wood of the fire prevented the goblins from getting to it, and by the time bone pickers would have had the gall to search these ruins the ash based mud would have obscured it, till a nosey wolf came along at least. 

   Tess stood and scraped the mud off the bottom of her staff, and finding an edge sharp enough to fit in the loose groove of the lidded chest, began to use it as a lever. She worked her staff deeper into the groove as Belgaer jumped atop the wall she had recently vacated and began to take his turn watching her work. With a sucking sound the seal of mud around the chest gave way and the lid slid backwards, pushing into the loose muck. 

   Belgaer returned to Tess’ side to explore the contents of the chest with her. At first glance it seemed to be filled with nothing but clothes but she began removing them one at a time and after checking for hidden pockets tossed them aside. When she picked up a rather fine looking coat and a small book fell from it. She retrieved it quickly, putting the coat back in the chest. 

 

   The book was leather bound and filled with actual parchment. About half the book was filled with blocky, solid looking Khazalid. Tess had no idea what any of the runes were but believed she recognized a journal anywhere and so pocketed it before returning her attention to the coat. It was finely built from soft leather and the inside was filled with a warm fur. Tess doubted that the sleeves would reach all the way down even her small arms but it looked like it could be warm for any emergencies on the pass and so rolled it up into her pack. 

   Digging through the rest of the chest Tess found two small casks, both sealed and marked with dwarven runes alongside the imperial lettering ‘Bugman’s’ with five large X’s underneath the script. Tess knew immediately what a find she had made just from the stories she had heard at court growing up and so pushed both of the pint-sized casks into the bottom of her bag. She knew that regardless of the possible journal’s worth, Bugman’s ale would fetch her either a fine price or a few favors. 

   As Tess was standing to brush the mud off her breeches she heard one of the dwarven rangers hiss out a loud whisper. “Oi! Them beastmen are comin’ back! We need to skedattle fast!”

   Tess grabbed her staff quickly as she heard Ulhan’s voice from behind another wall, “No time! Everyone down, stay low and quiet!”

   Tess pushed her back into a shaded corner, thanking the gods that she had chosen ruins whose walls were still tall enough to crouch behind. She felt sorry for some of the others who were probably lying down in the mud of nearby ruins now. Noticing Belgaer’s hackles raising, Tess quickly snapped and pointed at a pile of rotted timber leaning into another corner of the ruins, forming a lean too big enough for the small wolf to squeeze into. Belgaer read Tess’ intentions and squeezed inside, becoming invisible as his mud matted coat blended with the grime and wood. 

   Tess closed her eyes and breathed deeply, slowing her heart rate and deepening her consciousness, she reached out slowly, and wrapped her hand around the almost visible current of magic, pulling but a grey thread from it. She huddled deeper into her dark cloak and willed the magic to surround her, where she weaved the shadows around her, blending her cloak into the wall and shadows both. Tess gasped a little as the effort stole energy from her but the magic settled into a new current, eddying around her just as she heard the sounds of hooves on stone. 

   Tess listened carefully as the hooves resolved into many more pairs, which spread out through the ruins of the brewery. She saw the first beastman approaching her little hole in the ground. His horns were the first to appear over the ledge of the wall, large jagged antlers not unlike a deer’s, except in lacking any symmetry or grace, instead tangling around themselves like thorns. Next was the mutant’s head, furred and appearing like that of a dark brown haired goat, save for sharpened teeth dribbling blood either from where the mutant bit itself with its malformed jaws or feasted on flesh last. This led down into a chest that was muscled and shaped like a man’s but the goats hair continued down over his shoulders and across the backs of his arms. Tess suppressed a shudder as the horrid mutant’s dead gaze peered into her corner. 

   It appeared confused, almost as though it knew it should be seeing something when it was distracted by a guttural growl from other beastmen nearby. It responded in kind, its language dark and sharp, lacking any flow or elegance. Tess’s ears hurt at hearing the speech, but still they strained as a new sound was heard. 

   Tess heard the clinking of armored feet, as something joined the beastmen milling about in the ruins of thebrewery. A dark and heavy voice joined the chorus of bleats and dark tongue from the beastmen. It spoke the same language as they, but the voice itself felt ominous, and foreboding. 

   Tess’s heart began to falter, knowing that with every passing second the likelihood of someone being found increasing until her answer was found in shouting. Tess heard a dwarven battle cry as one of her companions burst from cover and the sound of a weapon impacting flesh with a sickening crunch echoed through the ruins as all other noise stopped momentarily. The silence lasted but for a moment as everyone moved simultaneously, weapons clearing sheathes all around her. 

   Tess, for her part, threw herself forward, reaching out with her hand and taking ahold of the magic she used to conceal herself. As she ran across the ruins she began condensing the magic into something new. As it became more solid, she gripped it in her hand and yelled out as she charged the beastman in front of her. 

   The beastman’s eyes went wide with surprise as it tried to turn and face Tess. She jumped up onto the wall between the beastman and herself and launched herself forward, the magic she grasped finally coalescing into the shape of a dagger as she came down on the beastman, the shadow shaped dagger buried to its hilt into the mutant’s shoulder. Tess hit the ground next to the beastman as it stumbled, letting out a blood curdling bleat, and readying its weapon to strike at the prone Tess. 

   As it readied the blow though, Belgaer impacted its chest full force,  carrying it to the ground with him. Belgaer’s jaws locked around the things neck and began to tear the life from it. Tess picked herself up, already holding two more shadow knives in her hands. 

   She saw Ulhan dispatching another beastman ahead of her, his thin longsword embedded between its ribs. He whipped his sword free as the beastman sagged to the ground, turning and running past Tess to where Tybalt was dueling two beastmen with ax and shield, a third dead at his feet. Tess also saw Kragun further away, towards the woodline, channeling magic of his own. Before she could see the effects of his spell she sprinted the other direction to Thorin and Vladimir.

   Vladimir stood atop a the remains of a wall, his horsebow in hand, letting arrows loose into the unarmoured flanks and necks of beastmen. At his feet on the ground fought Thorin. Thorin was as insane a dwarf as Tess had ever met. He never spoke or bantered with the other three dwarves of the party, instead spending his time lost in drink or maintaining his weapon. 

  
  


   From what she gathered from the other dwarves whispers he was a member of something akin to a death cult, and though he carried an ax which probably weighed far more than herself, he wore no armor. Instead his bare chest and arms flowed red with the blood of beastmen, in contrast to the intricate blue tattoo’s covering his entire torso and half of his arms, his bright orange Mohawk limp from the blood soaking it through. He snarled out in dwarven, his ax laying into any beastman that approached. 

   As Tess ran to regroup with the two frenzied warriors, she threw her knives at another beastman emerging from a gap in the walls of the ruins. One of the missiles impacted its chest and the other its leg, causing it to stumble to the ground, grasping at the wall for support. Tess ignored it and continued on, focusing to solidify two more shadow knives from the magic still surrounding her. 

   Belgaer loped up to her, beastman blood mixing with the mud still matted in his fur to make him look truly feral. He circled Tess once as she began running again and then fell into step behind her, ready to protect her back from flanking beastmen. 

   Ahead Vladimir and Thorin had cut down several beastmen until they began to break and flee the ruins. Taken by the ferocity of the ambush laid out for them the beastmen sought to flee and regroup where they could better leverage their numbers. Not everything would go according to plan of course. 

   As Tess began slowing, having reached the wall where Thorin and Vladimir made their stand, it exploded outwards, throwing Tess backwards onto Belgaer whose yelp kept her focused. Tess still had the wind knocked from her on impact though and struggled up to her elbows. Before her stood a giant humanoid, easily twice as tall as herself. He was clad entirely in dark armor, looking all the world like a black iron. Tess easily saw that the armor had to be something much stronger than iron though, for it was riddled with intricate baroque designs and artistic flairs. The designs were clearly meant to impress, but Tess could not make out individual designs, her eyes hurting if she looked at one piece of the armor for too long or too hard. The warrior’s helm had gleaming goat horns worked into the design, curling around themselves on the side of his open face. Tess could not see the warriors face however, as everything within the helmet seemed to be made of an inky blackness.

   The warrior flexed his grip on the large sword he carried. It was impossibly large, the blade itself as long as Tess and as broad as her hand from fingertip to wrist. The thing would clearly be too heavy for someone like Tess to even lift and this warrior carried it easily in one hand. Tess knew without the shadow of a doubt that she now was gazing up at one of the legendary warriors of chaos. Despite not seeing the warrior’s eyes, she knew he was ignoring her for the moment, instead casting his gaze among the scattered rocks around her, looking for the warriors who were responsible for the many dead beastmen strewn about. 

  
  


   Tess was reforming her magic, to once again enshroud herself in shadow and make due an escape. She looked up at the Chaos Warrior, who spared her no second glance as he searched for his quarry. He did not have to look hard though as almost immediately Thorin jumped up, brandishing his great ax. He yelled out a challenge in Khazalid and spat out blood. His entire body was covered in tiny lacerations from the shrapnel of exploding bricks. Tess was impressed with his vitality and either bravery or stupidity as he charged the warrior. 

   Dwarfish ax met chaos steel as the warrior brought his blade up to block the charge, parrying the ax wide. The dwarf was quick though and turned the change of momentum into a spin and brought his ax around on the other side of the warrior while his blade was outstretched. The ax impacted the plate over the warriors thigh and let off a flurry of sparks as it scraped along the armor before taking off one of the baroque buttresses extending from the ornate armor. 

   Thorin and the warrior separated from the impact and both laughed heartily, the dwarfs guttural chuckle at odds with the hollow boom of the warriors. “It seems I’ve already the first strike manling!” Thorin bragged to the warrior.

   “But my small friend, I scored first blood before blows were even exchanged.” The warrior returned in kind, his voice as hollow as his laugh, dripping with malice. He swung his blade foreword to point at the dwarfs bloody smile. “Your skull will make a fine addition to my collection.” 

   The dwarf raged and yelling, swung his ax up into the warrior’s sword as he dived back into the fight. The warrior reversed the grip on his blade, allowing the momentum from the dwarfs blow to carry it over and around his hand as he brought it down at the dwarf once again. 

   Thorin had to throw his ax up and himself to the side to block the blow. He grunted heavily as he landed on his side and immediately began to get his feet under him to ward off the warrior’s next blow. 

   Tess glanced furtively around for any backup, but everyone was still engaged with beastmen save Vladimir who was still stirring on the ground. Tess knew that Thorin could not stand for long on his own and that she wouldn’t stand any chance at all should he fall. 

   “Fuck, two’s better than one.” She muttered to herself, standing as she refocused her magic into the shapes of knives clutched in her hands. She whistled to attract Belgaer’s attention and nodded at the Chaos Warrior to help him understand her intentions. 

   Once Belgaer understood the plan of attack she jumped to her feet again and charged at the armored behemoth, who was now fighting both Thorin and Vladimir while receiving no hits worse than scratches on his armor. Thorin was bleeding heavier from a few gashes and Vladimir fought with a cavalry saber in hand, still dizzily though, due to his heavy furs Tess could not tell if that was from hitting his head earlier or bleeding. 

 

   As she approached the Chaos Warrior rapidly he shifted his stance to deal with the new threat as well, and as he did she threw both shadow knives at his helm. He brought his arm up to protect the open face of his helm and as he did Belgaer made a flying leap from his now blind side and barreled into the warrior’s shoulder. 

   The warrior yelled in surprise as he began to topple, but caught himself, landing heavily on his knee and grunting. By the time he began to right himself again both Thorin and Vladimir were on him, hammering him with blow after blow. He was struggling to fend both off while regaining his feet and began shouting in dark tongue again. 

   Tess knew what that would mean and spun around summoning more knives to her hands as she whistled for Belgaer to return to her side. As she settled into a trance and began drawing all the magic she could handle safely into herself beastmen began to converge on the warrior. Tess began throwing knives as fast as she could summon them taking down two beastmen and wounding two more before they were almost atop her. 

   She raised one arm to ward off the blows of far too close beastman as the other grasped for the short sword on her hip when all of the sudden the beastmen was thrown sideways from a blow that ripped open its chest. The figure that had just landed before her slowly stood, and she recognized Kragun. Even if she couldn’t feel the winds of magic disturbed around her she could tell he was channeling everything he was capable of. Where he was usually a bony old man, now he stood straight and tall before her, his robes ripped open from repeated blows and hanging loosely around his waist. His chest and arms were impossibly large and well-muscled, appearing to dwarf even Thorin’s, his chest and back were crossed with small lines of blood where beastmen blades and spears had impacted his toughened hide. 

   He roared and lashed out, his claw like fingers raking another beastman’s face and causing it to fall back, giving Tess time to throw her last shadow dagger at the Chaos Warrior, who used his blade arm to intercept it. Tess’s face quickly contorted to panic as she noticed him on the balls of his feet, already rotating with his free hand in a fist. She called out for Belgaer but was too late, the warriors fit impacting Belgaer and sending the small wolf through the air to land in a crumpled heap. 

   Tess’s eyes misted over as she tried to summon more knives into her hands. Too late though she realized that she had already used too much of the wind of Ulgu and it was in turmoil, her rage quickly fled her as she began fighting with the winds, emptying her mind and focusing entirely on fighting not to lose control of the now lashing wind. 

   Kragun stood to one side of her, ripping into any beastmen who approached the shadow wizard. This left Thorin and Vladimir alone to continue fighting the chaos warrior who was steadily gaining ground. His blade spinning in arcs as he spun between the two fighters, adding more and more nicks and grazes to their already weary bodies. 

   Tess collapsed to her knees, her hands making fists in the dirt around her as the winds of magic rebuked her. The edges of her vision darkened and her mind cut off most of the senses of battle around her as she tried to keep from releasing her magic while it was raging out of control. 

   Tess wasn’t aware of how long she spent on the ground but when the winds of magic finally calmed down she was able to release it and the world snapped back into focus. Sounds of fighting still surrounded her, though the tempo had changed considerably. The beastmen lay dead or had fled, and her entire party had come to the aid of Thorin in fighting the Chaos Warrior. Janik and Jalik stood side by side with Tybalt opposite them. Vladimir had stepped back from the melee, nursing his wounds and binding them. 

   Tess started to stand, but wretched as a wave of nausea overwhelmed her. Kragun immediately put arms around her and guided her over to a tall wall and sat her against it. Belgaer limped over to Tess and lay down with his head on her lap, whining softly at his swollen side from where he was punched by the warrior. Ulhan sat atop the wall, his fingers drumming on his sword as he watched the fight between the dwarves and the warrior. 

   “Not going to help them?” Tess asked Ulhan pointedly. 

   “Not much point to it.” Ulhan responded just as sharp. “Too much of a risk of hitting a minion with ranged combat, and if I step into the ring with everyone else everyone will have that much less room for maneuvering.”

   Tess snorted; happy she could force Ulhan to defend himself so easily. She did notice that the four dwarves seemed to have the fight in hand though. Tybalt focused on the warrior’s sword arm, intercepting his wild swings with his heavy shield as much as possible. Thorin attacked in bursts, focusing the warrior’s attention on him as his heavy ax tore rents into the dark armor. These two combined left Janik and Jalik to flank the warrior, striking weak points from behind. 

   The Chaos Warrior began spouting curses in his dark tongue as he realized that he was about to die, with no way to escape he began launching himself furiously at Thorin, hoping to take the dwarf out with him. This proved to be the opening Janik and Jalik needed. Janik sunk his ax into the back of the warriors knee joint, causing the behemoth of a man to drop, as he began falling foreword Jalik jumped onto the warriors back, using one hand to hold himself secure via one of the buttresses on the warrior’s shoulder, and his other began sinking his own ax into the warrior’s neck repeatedly. 

   As the warrior died, his screams softened to gurgling and finally silence. Everyone around visibly relaxed. Janik and Jalik immediately began rifling through corpses for good loot, and Vladimir readied his bow and began collecting arrows, his eyes scanning the horizons for any returning beastmen. 

   Tess rubbed Belgaer behind the ears as he began to doze, knowing both of them needed rest after that fight. Tess had not been wounded in any meaningful way, but when her magic lashed out at her it took allot to regain control. She still tasted the copper in her mouth. 

   Ulhan pulled Kragun aside and spoke quickly for everyone’s benefit, “Everyone take a few minutes to catch your breath. We got what we came for so… Good job guys. Kragun and I are going to go fetch the mounts and the rest of our party. Well fought everyone.”

   Tess stood, dusting herself off and making sure Belgaer fell back asleep, he needed the rest more than her at this point and she would have maybe half an hour without Ulhan’s eyes on the group, A perfect time to build up some more friendships. 

   Tess approached Thorin, who was scraping congealed blood off himself with his fingernails and wiping it off on the ground. “This rotted crap really starts to stink!” He chuckled to himself as he eyes Tess’s approach, “Better than troll guts though! That stuff stings!” 

   Tess laughed softly, “Regardless, you standing fast against him probably saved a few of us. That was very brave Thorin.”

   He snorted, “Woulda thought he’d be a better fight than that. Some champion he was. Leading a herd of goats and getting cut down by a couple beardlings like that.” 

   Tess held out one of the flasks of Bugman’s XXXXX, “Regardless, I think you’ve earned this Thorin. I appreciate it.” 

   Thorin looked taken aback but quickly took the flask after eyeing Tess to make sure she was genuine. “Aye, you’re not too bad for a finger waggler I reckon. ‘Mere and let’s enjoy a bit of this together.”

   Tess smiled to herself as Thorin began trying to swap good fighting stories with her, and when he realized she didn’t have any just regaled her with a few as they waited for the return of Ulhan. The Bugman’s wasn’t much to Tess’s liking, but she had to admit its flavor and strengths were unlike any other beer she had had before. 

   After losing control of her magic today Tess figured that she would be sore for a few days to come, and Belgaer had probably broken a rib. But between making another ally in the ranks of Ulhans company and her decent loot Tess was still happy with the prospects of this journey. She was still unsure of Ulhan the younger, but as long as his father’s money was good and she maintained allies in the company, she was determined to arrive in Miragliano in a much better position than she left it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had pointed out to me, rightfully so, that a brand new party would likely get rocked a bit harder by a full war-herd of beastmen led by a Warrior of Chaos so I wanted to expand a bit on what happened. THere are a few more party members than you have met so far, but I wasn''t really sure how to introduce them all without WALL OF EXPOSITION, so I have decided they will be introduced as their players found their stride and made them more important to Tess and the story as a whole. Also, this campaign was mostly veteran players so my party wanted to start with 500xp rather than just the base 100xp so that they could skip out on the whole whiffing every strike phase of beginning adventurers. 
> 
> EVEN WITH all that, a Chaos Warrior should have been able to throw down some hurt. But Nuffle was not with me this day and he spent several rounds of combat putting light damage on a few characters, with Vladimir being the only unlucky one, burning a fatepoint in this first fight. Then the party decided to roll 3 successive Ulric's Furies, pretty much melting the Warriors HP, double irritating since he was supposed to flee and keep chasing the party down with larger herds of beastmen, to keep herding them up the pass and further into the story. SO YEAH, fuck my players for that one. 
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed :) I'll be starting the third chapter later this weekend so look out in the next ~2 weeks!


	3. The First Sacrifice

   Tess squeezed hers eyes shut tight as she rubbed her temple, willing the migraine to abate. It had been a week since the party’s battle at the ruins of Bugman's Brewery and she still was wracked with pains from losing control of her magic. It was a valuable lesson not to overestimate herself again. Belgaer fared worse still, having broken three ribs from the kick to his side. The Wild Wizard Kragun tended to the wound and set them as best he was able, badgering Ulhan to allow the poor wolf to ride in the wagon where he slept most of the day's since.

   She had convinced Vladimir to agree to teach her how to wield a blade so that she would not be so defenseless next time her magic escaped her, But Vladimir himself was still recovering from his fight with the Chaos Warrior. Thorin and he had both borne horrific injuries from that fight but while the implacable dwarf was back in fighting shape the next morning the Kislevite still nursed a limp. His injuries were no doubt made worse by his stubborn nature, refusing to ride in the wagon and trusting his steppe pony to carry him even through the pain.

   Ulhan the younger however was dealing with pressure from above and below. Once the party returned to the rest of the vanguard and the caravan from their fight at the ruins of Bugman's Brewery Tybalt wasted no time in returning to Freidrich Ulhan and reporting the issue to him and the rest of the Dwarves. The Dwarves of both the vanguard and the caravan proper were out for blood at the desecration of one of their most treasured sites. Only Freidrich's very public dressing down and embarrassment of his son had tempered their anger. Ulhan the younger for his part took it stoically, and drove the vanguard harder.

   The vanguard now was a day’s ride ahead of the rest of the caravan in the Brenheim Pass proper. The caravan had stopped at Copper Mountain to trade with the Dwarven Karak there while urging his son to continue on after having just enough time to refill their supplies. No doubt this was to prevent an incident when word of Ulhan's exploits at Bugman's filtered to the local population. This was not lost on the vanguard and they grumbled heartily. Ulhan ignored them and acted as though his leadership was unquestionable still. He drew some of his specialists closer to him, crafting a core cadre within his vanguard. Tess was a part of this, though she believed that this more likely due to him not wanting a wizard to array against him rather than any trust they still hadn't built between them yet.

   The mountains of The Vaults arced high above the party, traveling along the pass carved into the side of the mountains. The trail itself was four carts wide, of worn stone and dirt or occasionally cobbled from where the old dwarf road had not yet been washed away. The mountains sloped steeply on both sides of the party, almost straight up along the party’s right side, while on the left there was a deep canyon a river ran through at the bottom before arcing back up into the next mountain. Ahead though Tess saw the mountains on the left drop away, leaving a blue and empty sky visible in the distance. Tess glanced about and watched everyone quicken the pace of their mounts, apprehensive for fresh scenery and something besides grey rock to stare at.

   Tess alongside everyone else stopped and stared as they cleared the shadows of the mountains. The roads left side ended in an abrupt cliff, affording her a magnificent view of an extraordinarily large valley. Judging from the position of the sun where Tess now stood was the North West corner of the valley, with the northern wall to the pass's left cutting away east for a distance before turning back to the south, where it merged with the river on the horizon far to the South East. The road itself started a gentle slope downwards to the south where it appeared to go down to the valley floor a couple hundred paces below them. The valley itself was filled with a lush looking forest, with few breaks in the canopy.

   Tess was distracted by a movement on her periphery and glanced over to see Vladimir beside her, dismounted, his arm fully extended before him with his thumb raised. He at first had one eye closed, and was staring at something beyond his thumb when he suddenly changed eyes. This continued for a moment with him switching eyes a couple more times. Tess was about to ask him what he was doing when she noticed Ulhan walking his mount up behind them. She cleared her throat and Vladimir lowered his arm, nodding and smiling up at Tess, as they both turned to Ulhan.

   "Afternoon boss." Vladimir spoke sharply, making sure his voice carried no invitation for casual conversation.

   Ulhan acknowledged this with a nod, "How far is it across the valley?" He asked glancing down at the Kislevite's thumb.

   Vladimir just shrugged, "Ze distance is too great for accuracy. But I would guess no less than three leagues."

   Ulhan nodded slowly, keeping his thoughts to himself. He turned his mount and goaded her into continuing down the road. Tess and Vladimir glanced at each other and Vladimir remounted, still favoring his injured leg. As Ulhan passed the majority of the vanguard he spoke up again, "About an hour further ahead we'll be crossing a bridge. We stop for rest there. Not long after that we will see smoke rising from the south, that's Alimento, where we rest tonight."

   Tess and Vladimir began to continue riding alongside the cliff, with Vladimir teaching Tess about finding distance with her thumb, and terrain association. She grasped the basics fairly quickly and Vliadimir began pointing out features of note in the valley to use as landmarks.

   "I supposed those would be easiest due to visibility then?" Tess asked, gesturing at two jagged peaks raising half again as high as those surrounding them on the far side of the valley.

   "Nah, look at where zhey are though. Ze North Vest corner of ze valley." Came his reply. "Zat's all good from our vantage, but once we're further south zey'll be impossible to see." Vladimir pointed out a bare hill rising from the trees around it, with a lonely watch tower rising from its top. "Zat's closer to ze center of the valley, and much more visible from ze south."

   Tess snorted, "Unless the thick canopy prevents us from seeing anything when we're as low as the trees."

   Vladimir laughed, heartily, "Now you see why us Kossar's prefer ze stepps of the Motherland!"

   Tess smirked and continued scanning the valley. Her smirk faded as she saw something odd far to the South East. "Hey, Vladimir. What do you think that is?" She asked, pointing straight at a large dark patch on the horizon. It was too far away to see clearly but it appeared as a dark, almost black, spot on the horizon, stretching almost as wide as the valley as it faded from view.

   Vladimir scratched his beard, his features scrunched together. "Zat's not good, it looks almost like the Wastes from here."

   Thorin spoke up from the back of the supply wagon, traveling several paces from them, "The clansmen of Karak Izor tell tales of millennia ago. Somewhere near their hold one of those great moon rocks fell. Poisoning the land, causing them to loose contact with one of their lesser holds and its lands out here." Thorin leaned closer to them, his large orange Mohawk bristling with his movements. "They say that the creatures of the forest have been poisoned too, making great beasts of Chaos that now hunt this valley!"

   Thorin and Vladimir both spat after the mention of Chaos's corruption, as well a couple of the other mercenaries near enough to hear, but Thorin continued. "Can you imagine if we got to fight one of them beasties!?" He bellowed out, "What a great death that would be!" And began laughing uproariously to himself.

   Vladimir for his part just shook his head. "You never get used to that filth. No matter how many times you see corruption like that it will always surprise you."

   Tess nodded, thinking of the pestilence that lay in the swamps West of her home of Miragliano. "I understand what you mean."

   With this the conversation died down, the only sound being the whistling of wind through the harsh peaks and down into the valley beside the travelers. Tess rode silently; looking about the vanguard at those she had established relationships with, those she trusted to watch her back should they end up having to fight such a wicked and unholy thing. Ulhan as leader of the vanguard headed the 'definitely not' list. He seemed competent with his single long sword, but she still didn't trust him, and figured he would leave the whole party for dead should they prove cost inhibitive. Not necessarily for money though, Tess took note of the expenses he lavished upon. There were over two dozen people in his vanguard, almost entirely paid from his own profits in this venture. And yet he also provided mounts for them all, and plenty of supplies. He made sure no one would die needlessly. No, Tess was sure he had another game plan, and it drove him to these lengths.

   Luckily though there were several that she did trust in the vanguard. First among them was Vladimir, a burgeoning friend from the beginning of the journey, as well as Kragun, another wizard, though of the Amber order. Tess figured that she could also trust the four dwarves to at least not go out of their way to help Ulhan. Thorin was a hardened Slayer, and loyal as a dwarf can be to a wizard thanks to Tess's lucky find of some Bugman's XXXXX which she gifted him. The Dwarven rangers Jalik and Janik were also none too fond of Ulhan, having come from a clan up in the Grey Mountains that still held the ruins of Bugman's a holy site. The one questionable dwarf was Tybalt. Tybalt was loyal to Ulhans father, and probably would stick by the son out of that duty.

   Then there were the members of Ulhan’s inner circle that she had not properly gotten to know yet. Katharine was a half elf, born in the wilds of Wissenland to two rangers. She had taken up their trade and carried her parent's elven long bow alongside much more human sabers. She wore leather lamellar armor stained dark, with a cloak that allowed her to blend into almost any shadows with ease.

   Estrapa was a boisterous duelist. Hailing from Estalia Tess had an immediate dislike of the man, his flamboyantly colored clothing and foppish behaviors aggravating her. Estrapa carried small caliber pistols, as well as a rapier and fencing dagger. He certainly seemed skilled in their use but Tess found him aggravating enough that she did not try to overcome their racial divide. It was vindicating to her when he took an immediate shine to Ulhan and began fancying himself the mans Aide De Camp, much to the annoyance of Tybalt, Ulhan's actual Lieutenant.

   The last of the vanguard's inner circle was another Tess could not bring herself to grow close too. He was a dark skinned Sartosan. The corsair had originally come from the lands of Araby before his crew was raided by the Sartosan pirates. He joined their ranks and joined a crew that raided along the river Reik until their defeat by Marines of the Empire. His dark skin allowed him to pass himself off as one of the pirates slaves and spared him the noose. Now he had joined the Ulhan caravan to get paid on his way back to Sartosa. This of course was all according to him, and with a name he claimed had over twenty syllables in it that no one could be bothered to remember the party took to calling him, The Sartosan.

   Both Katherine, and the Sartosan did not talk much and Tess could not be certain of with whom their loyalties lied. She huffed to herself and continued scanning the valley as she road. She realized that there was almost no chance of anyone actually starting a mutiny against their paymaster, but she prided herself on always being ready. More than likely she would use the knowledge she gained of Uhan on this trip for future plans against him when she was conducting her own family business back in Miragliano.

   Tess looked up when she heard the voices of those around her begin to animate. Ahead the road narrowed and raised, turning itself into a large bridge. As the vanguard neared it she saw that it was of ancient Dwarven make, the flagstones pitted and worn in places but still smooth and fit together perfectly. The bridge itself was a couple hundred paces across a giant chasm that opened up beneath the trail. It appeared that a tributary for the river that still lay to the roads left cut in here from the mountains to the right. Looking up the gulley the tributary cut Tess saw a much smaller trail winding up the side of it from the road. The side gulley extended for half a league into the mountains before widening into a small valley with a pool at the bottom. Feeding into the pool was a beautiful waterfall falling straight into the pool from a couple hundred meters higher in the cliff where it emerged from a huge Dwarven face carved right into the cliff.

   Tess let out a low whistle, admiring the sense of grandeur it inspired. Ulhan ruined the mood though as he began calling out orders as he led everyone across the bridge where the road widened once again, at the trailhead that led to the side gully. "Alright everyone, dismount. Stretch your legs, and relax."

   He continued speaking as he dismounted himself and grabbed his blade and a small shoulder bag from his mount. "Tybalt, you take charge here. Establish a camp and watch rotation. Hopefully the caravan will catch up before too long."

   Ulhan looked around the vanguard as they began to ready camp and let their mounts rest, calling out names as he spotted them, "Kragun, Tess, Vladimir, Thorin, Katherine, Janik, Jalik, Estrapa. You all are with me. We're going to explore this side path." Ulhan gestured towards the trailhead along the road. "Ten minutes please."

   Tess raised an eyebrow at Vladimir and Thorin. The latter shook his head, causing his red Mohawk to sway with the motion. "I think this be one of the outposts of our lost hold." He gestured at the Dwarven relief in the side of the mountain. "Ten marks say’s the mouth is our entrance."

   Vladimir laughed as he strapped his blade and bow to his back, "I s'ought you dwarves were all about your fancy hidden doors and ze like!"

   "The nerve!" Thorin bellowed, laughing "Only a Dowi with too much time on 'is hands would waste so much effort on somethin' so flashy!"

   Tess rolled her eyes at the two's antics and readied her own equipment. She cooed at Belgaer and told him to stay when he tried to get up to join her. "Don't worry friend. You need rest still. Besides, there's already going to be eight of us crammed into those tunnels."

   Belgaer whimpered but licked her palm once and lay back down in a huff. Tess smiled at him and moved over to Ulhan at the trailhead. Deliberately avoiding instigating a conversation she slipped into a trance, feeling for the winds of magic around her and trying to get a handle on how they would cooperate in the valley. They were steady, but not strong and Tess figured that it would be almost impossible to wield any of her advanced magics. She huffed and made an annoyed grimace.

   Kragun approached nodding, "Your wind too eh?" He leaned heavily on his staff peering at the dwarven relief. "Powers that a hundred men couldn't fathom and we're stymied by stagnant air.

   Tess laughed, lightly at first but then heartily as she saw Ulhan roll his eyes at the joke. She settled down with an impassive smile on her face as the rest of the named party gathered.

   The party began meandering up the mountain path towards the Dwarven relief in the mountain, and as they approached Tess saw that Thorin was indeed correct, the path led to a small flat precipice before the mouth of the relief where the waterfall emerged from. The precipice had plenty of room for the group to gather without straying too close to the cliff, but there was only a few paces of water between where the water emerged and where it shot off the cliff down to the valley below. The mouth of the cave was barely wide enough to stretch Tess's fingers between but the water was moving fast and appeared at least a couple feet deep. Rotted wood clung to the sides of the cave mouth and the edge of the water in front of it.

   Thorin explained, "Looks like 'dis was a walkway, ta keep us above the water, once.

   Ulhan pointed out a rusty but still solid looking chain anchored into the wall of the cave, following it into the darkness, "Looks like that still holds at least."

   Kragun stepped forward during this exchange and stuck his staff into the rushing water, watching it disappear halfway just a few feet from the cliff. "Three feet at least." He called out.

   Everyone looked taken aback, with Estrapa voicing dissent first, "Water that deep, moving that fast?! If we so much as slip we'll be dead!"

   Ulhan smirked, "Then don't slip." And was about to put one foot into the water when he stopped, his eyes focusing on the back of the group, "What are you doing!?" He asked pointedly. The entire group turned around to see Tess removing her boots and tucking her skirts up into her belt.

   Tess paused for a moment, her chest and face flushing with momentary embarrassment as she realized everyone’s attention was on her but she retorted pointedly, "Do YOU want to get your entire wardrobe soaked wading through that?"

   Vladimir immediately moved to diffuse the situation, "Ha! A good point devushka!" He immediately began removing the armor off his legs. A couple others of the party started following suit, but Tess was still in a staring match with Ulhan, who suddenly broke eye contact, running his gaze up and down Tess's very visible legs, he glanced at her once more and smirked before turning away to remove just his boots.

   Katherine put her hand on Tess's shoulder; Tess glanced at the Elf, whose boots were already slung around her neck. "Don't mind him none, it’s a good idea you had. And no one can fault a wizard for wearing clothes more befitting her station than dungeon delving."

   Tess nodded to the elf and flexed her toes on the dirt path, it definitely did feel good to have the misty spray from the waterfall on her legs. In short order the party was reformed, everyone having at least their boots removed, and many the outer layers of their wardrobes as well. All of this was either slung around necks or piled neatly at the base of the Dwarven relief away from the water. The entire party now stood in a small circle again, eyes shifting from one to the next.

   Ulhan began, "Alright, this will likely be our first real taste of the unexpected. An abandoned dwarven hold is too good a hiding spot for most beasties to avoid so something will be in there. And this time we won’t have the element of surprise like we did at the brewery. Our first order of business is to clear the water quickly, push our way up onto dry land. And assess what kind of layout we have to deal with from there."

   Vladimir cleared his throat, "I’ll be on the point."

   Estrapa nodded, "Good idea, the dwarves couldn't cut through the water as fast and we would need someone to help others onto dryer land on the other side."

   Ulhan nodded and then pushed Vladimir's shoulder, "Lets get going then."

   Vladimir led the party into the water slowly, testing each step and grasping onto the metal chain tightly. One by one the rest of the party followed, moving one foot at a time, and grasping some form of weapon in their free hand. The tunnel was long enough that Tess's eyes had time to adjust, seeing the tunnel widen out into a chamber, a few dozen paces from the entrance. The roar of the waterfall dulled to a constant white noise and the sloshes of legs fighting against the current droned all else out in the small tunnel.

   Just as Tess saw the first few people clearing the entrance into the chamber beyond she heard shouting, and suddenly was jostled as everyone both ahead and behind her sprang into action. She surged forward with the rest of the party, hoping to clear the tunnel when she saw a body sweep towards her, carried by the water. She reached out and grabbed it, but its weight and speed yanked her off the chain. Tess began panicking and yelling for assistance as the current drug along towards the waterfall. The bottom of the stream was worn smooth by water and she began to fear for her life as she scrabbled uselessly at it to gain a handhold.

   Suddenly her movement was arrested as an arm shot out and grabbed her hand. Regaining control quickly Tess hauled herself up the arm to grab the metal chain once again. Tess caught her breathe and looked up, to see Katherine’s worried face. The noise from both the fighting in the chamber ahead and the water in her ears made hearing words impossible so Tess just nodded quickly to Katherine as both began hauling themselves foreword.

   By the time Tess made it up into the wide chamber the fight had ended. The width of the chamber meant that the waters depth and speed was greatly diminished; only rising up to Tess's shins. The chamber had another entrance where the water came up from a tunnel that appeared to dip down to being completely submerged, and a stone bridge, carved from a single piece of rock, that connected to two tunnels arcing off opposite directions. The bridge was just high enough that Tess had no hope of jumping up from the water to reach, but it appeared that Ulhan was already working on a plan with Estrapa, the two throwing rope over the thin bridge and the two dwarves were shoving a couple beastmen bodies down the tunnel to the waterfall.

   Tess looked around for a moment, and met the inquiring eyes of Katherine and Kragun. She shook her head slowly. Kragun looked like he was about to speak when Ulhan called out, "Theres time for that later. We have to keep moving!"

   The party using the rope, with the bridge as a pulley helped each other up onto the bridge where they re-donned their boots, peering down both passages. Thorin spoke up, "These passages only look big enough for a couple 'a us to pass through at a time." He looked up at Ulhan, "Not likely ta get bigger."

   Ulhan's brow furrowed as he thought aloud, "Then cramming ourselves into a hall like this will likely cut down on our maneuverability should we come across more beastmen."

   Jalik suddenly interrupted, jamming a thumb over his shoulder back to the waterfall. "Don't forget we just lost our best shield bearer!"

   Janik stifled a snort as the rest of the party narrowed their eyes. Ulhan looked like he was about to speak again when Tess interrupted, "Then we split the party. Janik, Jalik, and Ulhan can take one path, with Kragun so there's a wizard with both groups. Then Katherine, Thorin, Estrapa and I will take the other path. We're all much lighter and can just scout it out. If one group runs into trouble they can hold position and wait for the others."

   Ulhan's eyes narrowed slightly. But Tess knew that her logic was sound and the rest of the party was already moving to separate themselves into her listed groups. Ulhan admitted defeat and his face relaxed, "Very well, we will take the left path. Losing one fighter in this hole is enough, try not to die."

   Tess refrained from smirking as she began moving up the right path with Katherine and Thorin. The chamber ended abruptly in a stone wall where the bridge crossed, the path continuing up a flight of narrow stairs, carved from the rock. The stairs arched up and to the right.

   Katherine slid smoothly up the stairs, keeping her back lightly pressed against the outside wall of the curved staircase and an arrow nocked on her bow before her for any ambushes, her elven stature not giving her much clearance in the Dwarven tunnels. Thorin ambled up much more deliberately, holding his axe lightly. And Tess followed from behind, her small stature allowing her to navigate tunnels as easily as Thorin. Estrapa brought up the rear.

   After a minute of listening to the waterfall fade into the distance Katherine suddenly spoke, "I see the tension between master Ulhan and yourself Tess, is that why you volunteered us to split?" Tess heard stress in Katherine's voice, and figured that she didn't really enjoy being separated from the rest of the group, and from more bodies to keep between her and her enemies. Tess understood the feeling.

   "Not this time." She began.

   Thorin interrupted her with a spit. "The twins I rekon."

   Tess nodded mostly to herself, "Not five minutes after Vladimir is lost, and they had to crack a joke about it." Tess was silent for a few seconds more, when the staircase ended and the party emerged into a level hallway, the passage widening out and the roof rising a little. The hallway continued straight for another twenty paces where it ended in a small window. There was also a single passage that cut off to the left.

   Estrapa asked, "And that window?"

   Thorin grunted as the party spread to search the hallway, Tess wandered over to the window as Thorin spoke, "That would be the left eye of the mountain’s Dwarven relief lad." Tess peered out it, at the view of the gulley and great bridge on the far side, leading out to the valley beyond. It was breathtakingly beautiful. She even saw the small camp Tybalt had set up with the remainder of the vanguard.

   Tess spoke somberly, her eyes still taking in the wide vista, "Did anyone see what happened to Vladimir?"

   Katherine cast her eyes down, looking sullen for a moment and Thorin spat again. "A spot a bad luck is what it was."

   Thorin continued, "Traded a few blows with the beastie, simply moved his foot the wrong way and the water took him…. Poor bastard didn’t even get ta die fightin.”

   The party was quiet for a moment, everyone lost in their own memories. Estrapa broke the reverie though, "We need to keep moving." Tess quickly nodded, shoving the loss of one of her few allies to the back of her mind as the party pushed into the unexplored hallway. It was dark, the natural light from both the window and the waterfall cavern behind them.

   Tess paused the party for a moment.

   "Let me." She closed her eyes and focused, drawing the winds of magic to her. They were still and meager, but enough for basic magic’s. She bound the wind to her staff which began to glow and illuminate the area. Tess locked eyes once more with her comrades and gestured down the hall. “I should probably go last so you guys don’t ruin your night vision.”

   Nodding once Thorin began leading the way down the hallway again. Tess took the opportunity to think. Ulhan the younger was more than willing to desecrate a sacred place of the Dwarves to acquire something, knowing full well he would get dressed down for it. And now, Tess surmised, even with him still freshly in trouble for the stunt at Bugman’s and on a short leash he took some of his best mercenaries on some sort of side jaunt away from their supposed mission.                 

Tess was more sure than ever that her employer had an ulterior motive for this trip, going behind his father’s back to get it accomplished, and voluntarily putting himself in harm’s way to ensure it was accomplished. Tess felt very excited at this knowledge, the sacrifices this man was willing to make meant that the reward was very handsome indeed, and if she had Ulhan figured it had less to do with some sort of monetary gain and was more akin to some form of power or knowledge. Tess knew she had to see about making sure she acquired her fair share.

**Author's Note:**

> As I mentioned at the beginning, this entire story was ripped off straight from my players, but will be told from Tess's point of view for now simply because she was one of the best RPers of the campaign, and took rather extensive player notes for me to selfishly rip from. 
> 
> Please rate and review :) I love writing but I work long hours and i'll admit I'm thirsty for some feedback I can use to keep my motivation on this work up! Updates are planned once every one to two weeks


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